Secrets And Smiles
by LeeLee Lollipop
Summary: Everyone has secrets, SHEILD is no exeption. But how does a secret of SHEILD's tie together Loki, Thor, Bruce Banner and Tony Stark? And how will it's involvement in the Avengers benefit Loki? Or will it delay him? Steve/Captain America bashing. REWRITTEN VERSION!
1. Chapter 1

Victoria crouched silently on a beam above Natasha, watching as the Russian asshole threatened her. She narrowed her eyes as the phone rang. The phone was passed to Natasha and Victoria smiled as she heard Phil's voice

"We need you to come in."

"Are you kidding? I'm working."

"This takes precedence."

Natasha sighed. "I'm in the middle of an interrogation, this moron is giving me everything." Natasha raised her eyebrows as the Russian asshole (as Victoria had now nicknamed him) looked confused. "Look, you can't pull me out of this right now."

"Natasha, Barton's been compromised."

Victoria's eyes widened. Not good. As she watched the fight, she thought about how it could have happened. Clint wasn't an easy person to take out. Natasha dropped the Russian asshole down a hole and picked up the phone from the floor.

"Where's Barton now?"

"We don't know."

"But he's alive?"

"We think so. We'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy."

Victoria snorted quietly. Natasha was going to _love_ that.

"Coulson, you know that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me."

Victoria smirked. Well, at least that was true, but she had the feeling that Phil wasn't talking about Tony Stark. There were bigger fish than Tony Stark. Much bigger. And green.

Victoria dropped to the ground once Natasha had left and opened her phone. "JARVIS? I'm going to need a jet. Where am I going? India."

…...

Victoria waited outside the house, watching Natasha walk inside. She wouldn't have to wait much longer.

Soon enough, she saw Banner following a small girl into the house. She followed him silently, throwing a grin to the agents outside. A few of them recognised her and put down their guns, smiling at her.

"You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle." Natasha said.

"Avoiding stress isn't the trick." Banner replied quietly.

"Then what is it? Yoga?"

Victoria pictured the Hulk in the lotus position and stifled a giggle.

"You brought me to the edge of the city." Banner smiled wryly. "Smart. I assume the place is surrounded?"

"Just you and me." Natasha smiled.

Victoria walked forwards. "Really, Natasha? It's not nice to lie. How about you leave Doctor Banner to me and go curl your hair or something, it's looking a little flat."

Natasha smirked slightly. "Victoria, it's been a while."

"I know. Now why don't you leave"

"Alright, I'll go outside."

Victoria rolled her eyes "Then take all the SHEILD agents and drive away. Don't try to trick me, you know who I am, it doesn't work."

Natasha sneered, then walked away. Victoria waited until she heard them all leaving before turning to Banner with a smile. "Hello, Doctor Banner."

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Victoria. You don't need to know my last name."

"Are you here to kill me, Victoria? Because that's not going to work out for everyone."

"If I wanted to kill you, Doctor Banner, I wouldn't have even bothered to come in. Natasha was here on behalf of SHEILD, I'm here to give you the same offer but with a better conversation."

"SHEILD." Bruce muttered. "How'd they find me?"

Victoria snorted. "They never lost you. They just kept their distance, even helped keep a few other interested parties off your scent. A certain General, for instance."

"Why? Why are you here?"

"Nick Fury seems to trust you, that's why. And now they need you to come in."

"What if I say no?"

Victoria shrugged. "I don't care, I don't work for SHEILD. But would you rather go willingly or be dragged there?"

"If I get dragged there the, ah, 'other guy' won't like it very much."

"You've been more than a year without an incident. I highly doubt you want to break that streak. Apparently SHEILD is facing a potential global catastrophe."

"Those I actively try to avoid." Banner laughed.

Victoria smiled. "Have you heard of something called the Tesseract? It's a cube that SHEILD were keeping. It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet."

"What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?"

Victoria sat down at the small table in the room. "He wants you to find it. It emit's a gamma signature that's too weak for SHEILD to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do, Doctor Banner. It does run through your veins, after all."

"Bruce, please. So Fury's not after the monster?"

"Not that I know."

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "And you know everything that goes on in SHEILD, do you?"

Smirking, Victoria leaned forwards. "I know a hell of a lot more that most people. You should talk to Fury, the way I heard it, he's pretty desperate. He's calling in all the big guns."

"Oh, yeah?" Bruce raised an eyebrow again.

Victoria nodded. "Captain America, Iron Man, you. Especially you. He needs you on this."

"He needs me in a cage." Bruce muttered darkly.

"No one's going to put you in a cage."

"STOP LYING TO ME!" Bruce yelled, slamming his hands down on the table. Victoria sniffed slightly and picked her fingernails.

"Come now, Bruce. It's not very nice to shout at someone who's trying to help you, is it?"

"I'm sorry. That was mean." he gave a sheepish smile. "I just wanted to see what you'd do; you didn't even flinch."

"I trust you." Victoria said simply. She handed Bruce a card. "Pack up and call me, I'll take you to SHEILD, or wherever else you want to go to get off their radar."

Standing up, she kissed him on the cheek. "Pleasure to meet you Bruce, I do hope you come to SHEILD. We do actually need you on this."

"I thought you didn't work for SHEILD?"

"I don't, I'm a consultant. Neurone, you may have heard of me?"

Bruce's eyes widened and Victoria smirked. He had heard. "I trust I'll be seeing you soon, Doctor Banner." she said smoothly, before walking out of the house.

_**A.N. - Please review and tell me what you think! Most of this is transcribed from the film. Took me bloody ages, I'll tell you that.**_


	2. Chapter 2

Victoria smiled as her phone rang. She knew he'd call.

"Hello?"

"Victoria, it's Bruce. Does that offer of a jet still stand?

"As long as you're willing to take it."

Victoria could practically _hear_ Bruce sag with relief. "Thank you. Where shall I meet you?"

"Where we met last time."

"When?"

"Whenever you like, Doctor. I never left."

…...

Smiling, Victoria watched Bruce walk up to the jet.

"Hey. You ready to go?"

Bruce nodded and climbed into the back of the jet. "Could you take me to SHEILD?"

Victoria nodded. "If that's where you want to go. JARVIS, set a course to SHEILD's main helicarrier."

"Of course, Miss Stark. Do you have a preferred speed?"

"As fast as possible, please."

"Very well, Miss Stark. Do you wish for Mr -"

"No. My brother will _not_ be informed of this."

"As you wish, Miss Stark."

Bruce frowned. "Stark? As in, Tony Stark?"

"Oh, so you've heard of him?" Victoria didn't bother to look up, she'd known this would happen sooner or later.

"Everyone's heard of Tony Stark. I don't think many people have heard of his sister."

Victoria smirked. "That's because Victoria Stark doesn't exist. SHEILD put a lot of effort into covering me up."

"But why? Why were you kept a secret?"

Turning to face him, Victoria crossed her arms. "Because I wasn't born, I was created by Howard Stark. I'm the ultimate test-tube baby."

Bruce's eyes widened and he whistled. "So that's where all the…stuff you do came from?"

Victoria nodded. "And I'd prefer it if you didn't broadcast what I can do. I'm not particularly fond of people making the connection between Neurone and Victoria."

"Don't you think Mr Stark will recognise you, Miss Stark?"

"Shut it, JARVIS!" Victoria growled. "Tony probably already knows I'm coming."

"Yes, Miss Stark. We are almost at the helicarrier, Miss."

Victoria nodded then smiled at Bruce's surprised expression. "JARVIS can be fast." she explained. "When he wants to be." she added.

The door opened and Victoria and Bruce stepped out onto the main deck. "Welcome to SHEILD'S main base, Doctor Banner."

Victoria stiffened as she saw the men getting out of the helicopter next to them. Phil Coulson, she didn't mind, but the other man was a whole different story…

"Ah, Victoria!" Coulson noticed her. "This is Captain Rogers. I'll leave you to introduce him, they need me on the bridge."

"See you there. I have to say, it was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice." Perhaps they should have left him there, she thought venomously. "I thought Phil was going to swoon. Has he asked you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading cards?" Bruce asked.

"They're vintage. He's very proud of them." Victoria smirked.

Rogers noticed Bruce. "Doctor Banner!"

"Uh, yeah, hi. Victoria told me you'd be coming." Bruce shook the Captain's hand.

"Word is you can find the cube."

"Is that the only word on me?"

The Captain flashed a grin that made Victoria want to rip it off his face and shove it up his asshole. "The only word I care about."

Rolling her eyes, Victoria decided to break up the cosy fireside gathering. "Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute, it's going to get a little hard to breathe."

"Is this a submarine?" The Captain asked.

It has planes on it, does it look like a submarine to you? Victoria bit her tongue and smiled instead. "You think we'd risk Doctor Banner in a submerged pressurised metal container? No offence, Bruce."

"None taken," he grinned. "No, Mr Rogers. This is much worse."

The Captain looked down and saw the engines and Victoria felt a vindictive satisfaction as he paled slightly.

"Shall we, gentlemen?" she asked sweetly.

Bruce grinned slightly as he looked at her. "You don't like him much, do you?" he whispered in her ear.

"You mean I haven't made it obvious already? Damn, I'm slipping a little."

_**A.N. - Please review and tell me what you think! Pretty please? ='(**_


	3. Chapter 3

Victoria seethed to herself as she led Bruce and Captain Rogers to the bridge. She could see Bruce becoming a good friend, but she could never imagine herself on friendly terms with Rogers. She hated the man, she had since she was a child.

"Victoria, why don't you like him." Bruce whispered in her ear. "What's he done?"

She turned her head to him slightly. "Not now. It's a long story."

He nodded and dropped the subject.

"Gentlemen!" Fury greeted as they walked in. Rogers walked forwards and handed him a ten-dollar bill. It seemed he'd lost a bet.

Smirking, Victoria lounged in a chair at the table. She nodded to Natasha, who was wandering around aimlessly. It seemed that Barton's disappearance was worrying the infamous Black Widow more than she realised.

"Doctor, thank you for coming." Fury shook Bruce's hand.

"Thanks for, well, attempting to ask nicely." Bruce smiled slightly at Victoria, who smirked again. "How long am I staying?" he asked.

"Until we get our hands on the Tesseract."

"And where exactly are we with that?" Victoria sat up. She knew the thing needed to be found, that it was dangerous. Why else would Rogers have tried to bury it?

Phil walked over. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

"We're still not going to find them in time." Natasha ran a finger gently over Barton's picture.

"You need to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce told them.

"How many are there?" Fury asked.

"Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we can rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

Victoria motioned to Natasha. Fury saw. "Agent Romanoff, show Doctor Banner to his laboratory, please."

"You're gonna love it, Doc. We've got all the toys." she led Bruce out and Victoria turned to Fury.

"Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Whatever you're hiding. I want to know the details of whatever the hell I got involved in. And by details, I mean: what happened the night of the collapse."

Fury sighed. "It was Loki. He took it."

A roaring noise filled Victoria's head. Loki… "That's not possible. He fell into an abyss. Thor told me."

"Oh, it was definitely him. Tall, dark hair, evil smile. Magic stick."

Victoria felt her breath coming in small gasps. Loki was alive.

"Ma'am, are you alright?"

Victoria brushed Rogers' hand off her shoulder roughly. "Director Fury, I think I need a minute."

He nodded. "Take as long you need. If we get him, I might need you to question him."

Victoria nodded, then ran off, her head reeling. Loki was alive.

…...

Victoria ran her fingers over the painting. It was a painting of her, Loki and Thor. The main feature of the painting was Loki, and Victoria remembered that Odin had had it painted for Loki's birthday.

Loki sat in a chair, casually lounging, while Thor stood behind him with his arm around his shoulders. Victoria sat on the floor, leaning against Loki's legs, her hand reaching up to hold his.

"What happened to you, Loki?" she whispered, the memories of the beginning of Loki's madness in her head. He used to be so happy, as the painting showed.

In the painting, there was a mischievous light dancing in his eyes and a playful smirk on his lips. It seemed he wasn't like that anymore.

Victoria sighed. What had she agreed to join?

_**A.N. - Please review! I really need to know if this is good enough or not!**_


	4. Chapter 4

Victoria slowly walked to the lab. She knocked on the door and slipped inside.

"I'm not intruding, am I?"

Bruce looked up and smiled. "No, come in. Are you alright? You seem a little pale. You should probably be resting."

"I'm fine." Victoria smiled and knew it looked forced. "Just heard something that was a little shocking, that's all. I needed to take my mind off it."

Nodding, Bruce looked down at the equipment. "You said it was a long story."

"What?"

"Steve. You said it was a long story. I'm trying to change the subject, take your mind of whatever it is."

"Oh, right. Well, you've heard about how Howard Stark was basically behind the whole 'Captain America' thing, right? Well, as soon as the Cap went under the ice, Dad stopped at nothing to try and find him. That's why I was created, he thought that someone with the same powers as Rogers would be able to _find_ him. But, obviously, the powers were messed up."

"So you weren't created because he wanted you?"

Victoria gave a short laugh. "I wish! I was made to find his beloved Steve. Me and Tony were his own children, and I swear to every God I know that he wished that it was _us_ in the ice and Rogers that was with him. I didn't care so much, but all Tony ever did was try and please Dad. He put everything into it, but Dad would hardly even look at him. Do you know that Tony passed every advanced placement class in high school when he was only twelve? All dad said was that he thought he'd found another potential spot that Rogers' plane could have crashed at."

Bruce's eyes were wide. "No?"

"Yup. Tony couldn't handle it all, when he turned 15 he started drinking and sleeping around. He became a playboy, he became _the_ playboy. I started using my powers and I didn't care how or on who. Eventually SHIELD found me and helped me to change and Tony met Yinsen when he was captured in Afghanistan."

Putting his glasses down, Bruce walked over to her. "What do you mean 'SHIELD found you'?"

Victoria sighed. "Let's just say you're not the only one they made a cage for."

Bruce gasped quietly in comprehension. "Oh, Victoria." he wrapped his arms around her. She stiffened at the contact, but relaxed into the hug. There were only three men she trusted enough to let them hug her, now it seemed she could bump the list up to four.

"Victoria, you're up. We found him."

Victoria looked up. "Loki? Where?"

"Germany." Fury said before leaving.

Sighing, Victoria turned to Bruce and kissed him on the cheek. "Have fun, Doctor."

He smiled. "I'm sure I will."

…...

Victoria ran with the crowd, terrified out of her wits. The Loki in that room was not the Loki she knew. The Loki she knew would never have taken pleasure in cruelty like that, would never have taken pleasure in death.

As Loki's doubles surrounded them, Victoria felt her heart rate rise and willed herself to calm down.

"Kneel before me." Loki ordered.

Everyone remained standing, too scared to obey and Victoria glared at Loki. She knew he couldn't see her, she'd made sure of that, but she was dying for him to look at her, to taunt her so she could fight him.

Loki frowned. "I said KNEEL!"

Everyone dropped to their knees, and Victoria cursed her empathetic abilities. Her fear was beginning to rise, as she could feel everyone else's terror.

"Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

Victoria pushed her awareness out. "You're wrong!" she thought.

Loki's eyes widened, but he was distracted by a man getting up. "Not to men like you."

"There are no men like me." Loki smirked.

True, Victoria thought, then pushed her control over the man again.

"There are always men like you."

Loki chuckled cruelly. "Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example."

Loki raised his sceptre and Victoria felt a twinge of guilt and looked away. The bolt of energy shot towards the man, but there was a clang and it bounced back towards Loki.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing."

Victoria looked up to see the Captain.

"The soldier. The man out of time." Loki smirked.

"He's not the one out of time." Victoria thought.

Loki looked around, but was distracted by the plane.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down." Natasha called over the intercom.

Victoria crouched low as Captain America and Loki fought. Every now and then, she projected an image into Loki's head to disorientate him. Images of her time in Asgard, of the times they played together and fought together, of how they had played tricks on Thor and others. It was working, Loki was faltering, not fighting as well as Victoria knew he could.

"Kneel." Loki said as he held Captain America down.

"Not today."

The fought again and Victoria glared at Loki. The images weren't working any more, he'd found a way to block them out.

"_Shoot to thrill, play to kill. I got my gun at the ready, gonna fire at will -_"

Victoria laughed as a red and gold blur shot past her and landed in front of Loki. Weapons erupted from all over the suit.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games."

Loki shifted out of his armour and put his hands up.

The weapons disappeared back into the suit. "Good move."

"Mr Stark." Rogers greeted.

"Captain." Victoria knew she was the only one who could hear the scathing anger in Tony's voice. Although, she thought, Loki probably would. He'd heard it in her voice often enough.

As they took Loki onto the helicopter, Victoria shuddered, remembering what Loki had done in the hall.

"What are you doing, Loki? Why are you doing this?"

His head snapped up and he looked behind him. Their eyes met and his widened as he saw her.

"_How much did you see?_"

"I saw everything."

He was turned into the helicopter, but not before Victoria saw his slight wince.

"_I'm sorry you had to see that. If it's any consolation, you look beautiful._"

Victoria narrowed her eyes. "Don't even start, Loki. Just don't."

_**A.N. - Please review! And Guest, thank you so much for your review, it really made me smile. =)**_


	5. Chapter 5

Victoria walked onto the bridge, still in her dress and a wide smile grew across her face. "Thor!"

The God turned and smiled. "Victoria! It is good to see you!"

She laughed as he picked her up. "Where the hell have you been, Thor?"

"On Asgard, my sister. I take it you were in Germany?"

"How could you tell?"

"Your dress. You look wonderful."

Bruce walked over and touched her arm. "Are you alright?"

Victoria turned and kissed his cheek. "I'm fine, Bruce. Has Fury talked to Loki yet?"

Bruce shook his head. "He's starting now."

Victoria looked at the screen. Loki was in a glass room, Fury on the outside.

"In case it's unclear: you try to escape, you so much as scratch that lass, 30 thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how this works? Ant, boot." Fury threatened.

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

Bruce stiffened slightly as Loki looked towards the camera. Victoria put a hand on his arm. "Calm down." she whispered.

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard. A mindless beast…makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you? You call on such lost creatures to defend you."

Victoria narrowed her eyes. "Stop it."

"_Stop what?_"

"You know what. I'm stood right next to Bruce. If your smartass attitude makes him lose it, he'll put me in hospital. Now stop it."

Victoria smirked as she felt Loki's worry.

"How desperate am I?" Fury asked. "You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill 'cos it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power. Unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded what real power is."

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."

The camera shut off and Victoria let out a sigh.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Bruce said wryly.

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" asked Rogers.

"He has an army called the Chutari. They are not of Asgard nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army?" Rogers scoffed. "From outer space?"

"He's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

Victoria and Thor both looked up. "Selvig?" they asked.

"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce said.

"He's a friend." explained Thor.

Natasha walked over. "Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours."

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him, why he's still around. He's not leading an army from here." The Captain frowned and Victoria felt the now-familiar urge to hit him repeatedly.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guys brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him." Bruce looked at Thor apologetically.

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he's my brother."

"He killed 80 people in 2 days." Natasha deadpanned.

Thor looked at Victoria and a faint smile lit the corners of her mouth. "He's adopted." she said.

Bruce smiled then turned serious. "Iridium. What do they need the iridium for?"

"It's a stabilising agent."

Victoria turned to the voice and grinned. "Took you long enough to show up! Who were you screwing this time?"

Tony grinned at her and ruffled her hair as he walked past. "Pepper. And I've been sleeping with just her for a while. Nice dress, by the way. Suits you. The iridium means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHEILD." Tony walked past Thor and tapped his arm. "No hard feelings point-break, you got a mean swing. Also, means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." He stood and looked over all the agents that were working. "Raise the mizzenmast, shift the topsail. That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did!"

Victoria giggled quietly and Bruce looked at her in confusion. "I feel a whole lot better now that Tony's here. He's only saying all this to cheer me up, he'll start talking science properly in a minute."

"How does Fury even see these?" Tony asked, covering one eye as he was looking at the screens.

"He turns." Victoria smiled.

Tony turned to her and smiled. A true smile, the one he only ever gave to her. It made her feel safe, it always had. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily, only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to kick-start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermo-nuclear astrophysics?" Victoria asked.

"Last night. From Selvig's notes. The extraction theory papers? Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Rogers asked.

"He'd have to heat the cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the cool room barrier."

Tony turned to Bruce and Victoria smiled at the glee in Tony's eyes. "Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnel effect."

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce retorted.

"Finally!" Tony grinned. "Someone who speaks English!"

"Is that what just happened?" Rogers asked.

"Yes, and they also figured out what Loki has Selvig doing! I know you were in ice for 70 years, but for God's sake try to keep up, Rogers. It's rather irritating when people can't follow a basic conversation!" Victoria hissed in the Captain's ear.

Bruce snorted slightly and Tony smirked.

"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner." Tony shook his hand. "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled and I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Victoria smiled as Bruce looked uncomfortably at Tony. "Thanks."

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube." Fury walked in. "I was hoping you might join him."

"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Victoria raised an eyebrow at Rogers. Perhaps there was a brain in there. A small one, but a brain nonetheless.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his own personal flying monkeys." Fury grumbled.

Thor frowned. "Monkeys? I do not understand."

"I do!" Rogers pointed at Thor. "I understood that reference."

Victoria's hand twitched and Tony smirked. She felt a thought from him pressing at her head, so she let down her barriers. "What?"

"**Trying not to face-palm, Torie?**"

"He's an idiot."

He smiled as she glared at him, he turned to Bruce. "Shall we play, Doctor?"

"This way. Sure."

Victoria made to follow them, but was stopped by a hand on her arm. She looked down at it and growled. "Rogers, if you want to keep your hand, take it off my arm."

"No. I want to know what your problem is."

"Why don't you ask my father what my problem is? Oh, wait, you can't! He died because of you!"

"I didn't kill your father."

"No, but you sure as hell made sure that me and my brother didn't have one. Our father was so busy looking for you, he didn't care that I was taken by SHIELD, he didn't care that my brother put himself in hospital a little afterwards. All he cared about was finding you in that goddamned ice. And do you know what, Rogers? I stand by my belief that when they found you, they should have left you in the ocean and told me and Tony that the asshole who ruined our lives was never getting out."

The Captain's eyes were wide and Victoria felt a satisfaction that burned through her like a fire.

"I - I don't even know your father!" he choked out.

"Don't you? I'll give you a little tip, Rogers. I was adopted into the family, after my dad created me in a lab specifically to look for you. I was given the last name of my adoptive family. Why don't you look me up, see what you find. Then tell me that you didn't know my father and that you didn't ruin my life."

Victoria wrenched her arm from his grip and stalked off. Thor caught up with her. "I have struck a bargain with the Director." he told her. "If you wish to talk to Loki, you may speak to him with no interference. There will be no cameras, no sound, just you and Loki."

Smiling at the gesture, Victoria turned to hug Thor. "Thank you."

_**A.N. - Please review and tell me what you think!**_


	6. Chapter 6

Victoria closed the door to her room, looking down at her hands, Her fingers traced over the small scars that covered her fingers.

"_Loki!"_

_He turned to face her and a smile grew on his face. "I didn't think Thor would let you come."_

"_I got Sif to distract him."_

_Loki took her hand. "Do I want to know how?"_

_Chuckling, she shook her head. "Probably not." She unlaced her fingers from Loki's. He looked disappointed, then glared when she pushed him slightly. "Race you!" she called, as she ran off._

_Loki's laugh followed her down the hall. She ran, laughing, then shrieked as he picked her up._

"_You thought you could run from me?" he whispered in her ear. Twisting her to face him, he kissed her cheek and dropped her to her feet gently. "Shall we go?"_

_Victoria ignored the thrill she had gotten when Loki had lifted her. It didn't mean anything. Nothing at all._

"_Keep telling yourself that." a voice that sounded suspiciously like Loki whispered in her head. She looked at him and he looked back at her innocently, with a slight hint of a smirk on his face._

"_Hearing voices again, Victoria?"_

"_Well, you'd know." she teased him._

A voice echoed in the corridor, snapping Victoria from her memories, and she glared in distaste, before hurrying to the lab.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract, but it's going to take weeks to process." Bruce was saying.

Tony walked over to a screen. "If we bypass the remaining frame and direct her out to the home cluster we can clock the signal in around 600 teraflops."

"All I packed was a toothbrush." Bruce chuckled.

Victoria sat down near to Bruce. "You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R and D, you'd love it. It's like Candy land.

"How do you know that?" Tony asked.

Victoria raised an eyebrow at him. He shrugged. "Stupid question, I know. She's right though, you should come."

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke Harlem."

Tony flashed a look at Victoria. She slipped him a small silver stick. Pressing the button slightly, she shocked his hand. His eyes lit up. "Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises."

He poked Bruce in the side with the stick.

"Ow!" Bruce cried.

Victoria and Tony chuckled. "Nothing?"

"Are you nuts?"

Victoria rolled her eyes. Rogers again. "You've really got a lid on that thing, haven't you?" she asked Bruce.

"Is everything a joke to you two? Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offence, Doctor."

Narrowing her eyes, Victoria brushed through the Captain's head. He'd found out who she was, and he thought that having Bruce here was a bad idea. Well, that reaffirmed her belief that he was an asshole.

"It's fine, I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Bruce smiled.

"You're tiptoeing, big man." Tony frowned.

"You need to strut." Victoria added.

"And you and your brother need to focus on the problem, Miss Stark."

"You think we're not?" Tony raised his eyebrows. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?"

"We _know_ he's hiding something."

"Torie's right." Tony said. "He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging him too." Tony pointed to Bruce, who held up his hands.

"I just want to finish my work here…"

"Doctor?" Rogers asked.

Bruce sighed and took off his glasses.

"Stop stalling, Bruce. What is it?"

He looked up at her. "A warm light for all mankind. Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it." Rogers said.

"Well, I think that was meant for you two. Even if Barton didn't tell Loki, it's still all over the news. The Stark Tower."

Rogers frowned. "That big ugly building in New York?"

Victoria and Tony glared at him.

"It's powered by an arc reactor. Self sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

"It's just the prototype." Tony shrugged. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

"So why didn't SHEILD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce asked.

"What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" muttered Victoria.

Tony walked around the table. "I should probably look into that, once my -"

"decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHEILD's secure files." Victoria finished with a grin. "You never change, Tony."

"You'd be disappointed in me if I did." he smiled.

Rogers eyes were wide. "Did you say -?"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret SHEILD has ever tried to hide. Agent files, the Tesseract project, lab experiments." He shot a dark look at Victoria, who paled slightly. She'd kept what happened from Tony for a reason.

"And yet you were confused about why they didn't want you around."

"An intelligence organisation that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome." Tony quipped.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war. If we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them." Rogers glared at her and Tony.

Victoria stepped forwards to stand with her brother. "Following's not really our style." Tony told him.

"And you two are all about style, aren't you?" Rogers sneered.

Victoria looked Rogers up and down. "Of the people in this room, which one is A: wearing a spangly outfit, and B: not of use?"

Rogers blinked slightly at the venom in Victoria's voice. Tony placed a hand on her shoulder. She lowered her barriers.

"**Calm down, Torie. Like it or not, he's part of the team.**"

"We didn't ask for him to fuck everything up."

"**But we have to deal with it. Kick his ass when it's all over.**"

Victoria turned to Tony with wide eyes. "You mean you're giving me permission?"

Tony snorted. "**I'll join you, Torie.**"

"Can you two not do that?" Bruce asked. "It's a little freaky, knowing that you can talk in your heads. And Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you."

Rogers sighed. "Just find the cube."

As he walked off, Tony and Victoria looked at each other and started to chuckle. "That's the guy our dad never shut up about? Wonder if they should have kept him in ice." Tony said.

"Guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us." Bruce admitted. "But, if it's any consolation, after what Victoria told me, I'm not too fond of him either."

"What Loki's got is an Acme dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face. And, we're gonna be there when it does."

"I'll read all about it." Bruce smiled.

"Mm hmm. Or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." Victoria ruffled his hair and he batted her off, smiling.

"I don't get a suit of armour. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare."

Victoria thought about what Bruce had said. Loki had the jump on them, but they had her. She was the one thing that could throw Loki off course, the trouble was, she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl it's way into my heart. This stops it." Tony tapped his arc reactor "This little circle of light, it's part of me now. Not just armour. It's a terrible privilege."

"But you can control it."

"Because I learned how."

Bruce shook his head. "It's different."

"Hey," Victoria gently placed her hand on Bruce's arm. "We heard all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you."

"So you're saying the Hulk, the 'other guy', saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"

"I guess we'll find out." Tony said.

"You may not enjoy that."

Victoria smiled. "You just might."

_**A.N. - Guest, I have to write them before I can post them! I'm glad you like it though. And is there something I can call you other than 'Guest'? You got a pen-name, ma cherie?**_


	7. Chapter 7

_Victoria sat at the high table, laughing as Thor told her a story. Thor suddenly stopped talking and looked down at her plate. She followed his gaze and gasped as her food erupted into snakes._

"_Loki!"_

_He pointed to the floor. The snakes had arranged themselves into words._

"_Happy Birthday… Is it my birthday today?"_

_Victoria felt herself flush slightly as people chuckled._

"_You've been in that library too long, Victoria! This is your party." Odin smiled._

"_I arranged it for you." Loki appeared at her side. "Dance with me?"_

_Victoria took Loki's hand and let him lead her to the floor. "You arranged all of this for me?"_

_He smiled at her and waved his hand. The ceiling shimmered into nothing, exposing the sky. "Do you like it?"_

_Victoria gasped. "Loki, it's beautiful!"_

_He smiled and spun her. "I have a present for you, Father helped me to make it, given that I had to go to Jotunheim to find most of it." A box floated from the table into his hand. He opened it and presented it to her._

"_Is that -?"_

"_An ice diamond, created by the King of the Frost Giants himself. What do you think?"_

_Victoria looked around at the hall. It looked beautiful, and Loki looked exhausted. He had done all this for her. She leaned upwards and pressed her lips to his gently. "I think it's amazing and that you need to sleep."_

_Loki looked pleased. He pulled her closer and continued their dance, the necklace winding it's way around her neck. "Always trying to take care of me, aren't you?"_

"_Well, someone has to, and all Nine Realms know that you don't listen to Thor." she teased him._

Victoria walked up to Fury. "Thor told me he made a deal with you, I'd like to cash it in."

Fury nodded. "Agent Romanoff's with him now, but you can take him as soon as she's done."

…...

"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian. Or I was." Victoria heard Natasha say.

"And what are you now?"

"It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, and I'd like to wipe it out."

"Can you?" Loki almost whispered. "Can you wipe out that much red? Drakopf's daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital fire?"

Natasha gasped.

"Barton told me everything." Loki continued. "Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality, this is a child, a prayer. Pathetic!" He spat.

Victoria knew that Natasha was trembling, she could feel her anger and rising fear.

"You lie, you kill, in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors, but they are part of you and they will never go away. I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work and when he screams I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

Victoria shuddered in horror and tears came to her eyes as she heard Natasha's sobs, however fake they were.

"You're a monster!" Natasha whispered in horror.

"Oh no," Loki chuckled. "You brought the monster."

Victoria heard Natasha stop crying and turn around. "So, Banner? That's your play?"

"What?"

Victoria heard her comm. link flare up and knew Natasha was talking to everyone. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." she turned to Loki. "Thank you, for your cooperation."

Victoria slipped in past Natasha, barely hearing the faint 'good luck' the assassin whispered to her. "Natasha's right. You are a monster."

Loki whirled around. "Victoria," he breathed.

She walked up to the glass. She knew that she was close enough now that Loki would see the tears in her eyes. "Why, Loki? Why are you doing this? It's a clichéd question, I know, but there isn't anything else I can ask you."

"I deserve this. I deserve a kingdom of my own."

"So you take one that doesn't belong to you by force?" Victoria shook her head. "You didn't used to be like that on Asgard."

"Did you mourn?"

"You know the answer to that."

Loki chuckled. "Did you spend all day at my graveside, weeping, wishing for it all to be a trick?"

Victoria slammed her fists on the glass next to Loki's face. "You know I did! And you know that you would have done the same!"

His face grew serious. "Perhaps back then. Now I am not so weak as I was. You have obviously not outgrown that weakness."

"I'm not the one trapped in a cage. I don't think I'm the weak one at the moment, Loki."

He chuckled. "Perhaps not."

Victoria sighed. "Tell me, Loki, do I mean anything to you? Did you ever love me at all?"

A tear slipped from her eye when he didn't answer her. As she walked away, he pressed his hands to the glass. "Don't! Don't leave!"

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because I do care for you, Victoria. I have tried, believe me, but I cannot douse my love for you. I have loved you from the moment you appeared at Heimdall's feet, angry and terrified. I saw something in you that captured my gaze, that made it unable for me to ignore you."

Turning back to face him, Victoria angrily swiped away the tear. "Don't try and use that silver tongue on me!"

"I speak the truth, Victoria." he said earnestly. "You are the one person I would end all this for."

"Then end it!"

He looked away from her. "I cannot. The betrayal I have suffered will not allow me to walk away having had no revenge."

"You have suffered nothing, Loki! So you're adopted! Odin is still your father! Thor is still your brother!"

"THEY ARE NOT!" Loki screamed. "They are not my family!"

"I didn't see Laufey's sons running to pick you up when you fell from your horse, I didn't see you running to the rooms of Laufey's sons when you'd had a nightmare. I didn't see you trying your hardest to make Laufey proud and being overjoyed when Laufey praised you."

Loki growled and turned away from her. "You cannot persuade me to stop this. The Chutari will come, and they will bring war."

Victoria sighed. "Then I hope you're still locked in this cell when they do."

She walked to the door, holding back tears.

"Why?" he asked warily.

"Because," she whispered, knowing he could still hear her. "I will be fighting, and the only way you will stop me fighting is by killing me. You say Natasha can't wipe away the red in her ledger, how will you wipe away the red that I make in yours?"

"Victoria -" Loki choked.

"Goodbye, Loki. I hope you'll be happy with your glorious war."

She shut the door behind her, then leaned against it, taking deep breaths. "Oh, who am I kidding?" She said, bursting into tears.

…...

(Steve's P.O.V.)

Stark looked up as the computer beeped. "Ah, it's done!"

Steve walked in and placed what he had found on the desk. "I found that, along with notes on the Tesseract. Has your decryption file finished yet?"

"Yup!" Stark said proudly. "Now, let's see…Lab experiments….Ah, there…Now, Victoria Stark…Found it!"

"Your looking for information on your sister? Could you be any more selfish? What about the Tesseract?"

"Hey, Capsicle, I've been trying to worm this info out of Torie for nearly 4 years. Shut up and sit down."

Steve sat down and raised his eyebrows at Banner, who shrugged. Stark moved the file to a screen they could all see and opened it. All Steve saw was white, and he realised it was a lab.

"Now, put the camera over the creature." a slightly oily voice said.

The camera moved to focus on Victoria, who was strapped to a table.

"Let me go! Please!" she struggled against the restraints.

The man who had spoken earlier came into focus. "Do it!" he hissed. "I want to find out what Stark did!"

"Which test are we initiating first, Director?" a scientist said.

Steve saw Stark's eyes narrowing. "Don't test her like she's some kind of animal!"

The director grinned. "Robotics test. Let's see how mechanical she is under that soft pretty skin."

Steve's view of Victoria was blocked, but his mouth dropped open as he heard agonised screaming. After a while, the view of Victoria was clear, and both Steve and Banner gasped. She lay limply on the table, covered in blood and whimpering, her skin flayed open.

Stark stood up. Steve saw he was trembling and leaned back slightly. Good thing too, as Stark grabbed the screen and flung it across the lab so it shattered on the far wall.

"Tony!" Bruce cried. He ran to Stark and pulled him around. Steve was shocked to see tears pouring down the man's face.

"She - she - they nearly killed her! They did -" He sank to the floor, weeping, and Steve felt a rush of pity, that he quickly quelled. The man was arrogant and, quite frankly, Steve couldn't find anything in him to like.

"Tony, she's alright. That director isn't even alive anymore. When he retired Fury was granted access to all the files, and when he found that one he personally put a bullet through his predecessor's head." Bruce comforted Stark, who suddenly straightened, wiping the tears from his face.

"She's coming, so's Fury. He knows."

Steve looked up. Stark had got up, and was fiddling with another screen, this time showing a file called 'Phase Two'. Steve recognised some of the weapon prototypes he had seen, and it suddenly clicked in his head.

"Stark -"

The door crashed open.

_**A.N. - Cliff-hanger, I know, I'm sorry! But please let me know what you think!**_


	8. Chapter 8

(still Steve's P.O.V. :\)

"What are you doing, Mr Stark?" Fury demanded.

"We've kind of been wondering the same thing about you." Banner frowned.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

Steve looked at Stark, to give him a smug look, but saw that he had his arms around Victoria and was whispering in her ear. She was shaking her head and digging her nails into his arm in punishment, if his expression was anything to go by.

"We are." Banner said. "The model's locked and we're searching for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

Stark looked up from Victoria. "And we get the cube back, no mess, no fuss. What is Phase 2?"

"Phase 2 is SHEILD uses the cube to make weapons. That's what I was trying to tell the two of you before Fury came in." Steve stood up.

Fury turned to him. "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean -"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Victoria turned around a screen that had a missile blueprint on it. "What were you lying?"

Steve glared at Fury. "I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit."

Agent Romanoff and Thor walked in. "Nat, did you know about this?" Victoria asked.

Agent Romanoff ignored her and looked at Doctor Banner. "Do you want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?"

He laughed shortly. "I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you."

Banner frowned at her. "And you've all been doing what, exactly?"

"You didn't come here because me and Victoria bat our eyelashes at you."

"Hey!" Victoria looked up from Stark's hands, which were around hers. "Leave me out of this!"

"I'm not going to leave just because you get a little twitchy!" Bruce said angrily. "I'd like to know why SHEILD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction!"

Fury sighed and pointed at Thor. "Because of him!"

"Me?" Thor looked confused, and Steve didn't blame him. How was he responsible for the weapons?

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet, who had a grudge massed that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously outnumbered." Fury explained.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet!" Thor argued.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury questioned. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the Tesseract?" Steve sneered slightly. He was right when he told Fury it should have been left in the ocean.

Thor stepped forwards furiously. "Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war!"

Steve started slightly. "A higher form?"

"You forced our hand, we had to come up with something." Fury said to Thor.

Stark scoffed. "A nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury raised an eyebrow.

Stepping forwards, Steve held out a placating hand. "I'm sure if he still made weapons Stark would be neck deep -"

"I'm sorry, how is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve blinked in mock confusion.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor sighed.

Fury turned to him. "Excuse me, do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

Everyone started arguing, and Steve looked across at Victoria. She was pale and trembling slightly.

(Victoria's P.O.V.)

_Victoria felt herself hurtling through the air, colours flashing past her. They got brighter and brighter, until she hit the floor._

"_By Odin!"_

_Victoria opened her eyes a crack. There was a man stood over her, covered in gold. Gold everywhere, even in his eyes. They looked strange, inhuman. He stretched out a hand to her and she shrieked and scrambled backwards. He faltered, then stepped back. "Fetch the princes and the King." he told someone, before looking back down at Victoria._

_She shuddered and drew into herself. The smaller you were, the less places they could hurt you. There was a soft touch on her shoulder and Victoria's head snapped up. A man was staring at her, a man with dark hair and pale eyes and strange clothes. Something about him made her trust him._

"_Where am I?" Victoria whispered hoarsely._

"_Safe." The man said, gently prising her arms from around her knees. "I am Loki. I will take care of you."_

"_Promise?" Victoria said, holding onto his hand to keep herself upright._

"_No harm will come to you, I swear it.." Loki said._

_In the weeks that followed, Victoria became stronger under Loki's care. He healed most of her injuries himself, and stayed by her side when he wasn't. His brother, Thor often came to talk to her when Loki was sleeping, which he only did when Victoria pretended to. Thor was like an older brother to Victoria, but Loki was something different, something she'd never known before._

Victoria was snapped from her memories by Thor's voice. "You speak of control, yet you court chaos!"

"That's his MO, isn't it?" "Bruce stepped forward slightly. "Well, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

"You need to step away." Fury told him.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Victoria asked.

"You know damn well why!" Rogers snapped at her. "Back off!" he said to Tony, who had put a threatening hand on Rogers' shoulder.

Tony glared. "I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armour." Rogers sneered. "Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

Victoria snorted and even Fury's mouth quirked up in a half smile.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

Victoria stepped forwards, but Tony flashed her a look and she stopped.

"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony said.

Rogers gave a derisive laugh. "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero?" Victoria sneered. "Like you? You're a family-wrecking laboratory experiment that used to be a skinny, asthmatic kid from Brooklyn. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Oh, and you're any different? At least I was something before I was experimented on. You were always a lab rat."

Tony pushed Rogers away. "Leave her the hell alone!"

"Put on the suit." Rogers told Tony. "Let's go a few rounds."

Victoria blanched. A fight was _not_ what she wanted. "Thor, do something!"

Thor looked up. "You people are so petty. And tiny." he chuckled.

"Yeah, this is a team." Bruce muttered.

Fury sighed slightly. "Agent Romanoff, escort Doctor Banner to -"

"Where? You rented my room." Bruce pointed out.

"The cell was just -"

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't!" Bruce interrupted. "I know, I tried."

Victoria froze. Bruce wouldn't have…

Bruce continued. "I got low, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the 'other guy' spit it out. So I moved on, focused on helping people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this _freak_ show, putting everyone at risk."

Victoria flinched at the word 'freak'.

"**Calm down, Torie. It's ok.**"

Victoria relaxed as she heard Tony in her head.

"You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Victoria looked up and gasped. "Bruce, put down the sceptre."

He looked down, and his eyes widened as he saw the sceptre in his hand. There was a beep and he looked at the monitor.

"We got it." Fury said.

"Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all." Bruce walked towards the monitor.

"You've located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

Tony looked thoughtful and Victoria grew wary. If he was thinking what she thought he was…

"I could get there."

He was. Victoria glared at him and shook her head slightly. He shrugged a little and she narrowed her eyes.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor said righteously.

Tony scoffed and Victoria wrapped a hand around his wrist. "You're not going out there alone!" She felt a flash of irritation as Rogers agreed with her.

"You're going to stop me?" Tony was looking at Rogers.

"Put on the suit, let's find out."

"I'm not afraid of you, old man."

"Put on the suit." Rogers growled.

"Oh my God." Bruce looked up.

Victoria opened her mouth, but was interrupted by an explosion that knocked her to the floor.

"Put on the suit!" she screamed at Tony.

"Yeah." he called back sarcastically.

Victoria looked down at Bruce, who had fallen through the floor with Natasha. "Bruce, are you alright?"

He groaned. Natasha looked up. Her ankle was trapped under a beam of metal.

"Someone's gotta get outside and patch that engine." Victoria heard Agent Hill say over the comm. link.

"Tony!" Victoria called.

"**I'm on it!**"

Victoria swung herself down the hole, landing lightly next to Bruce. "You're ok, right?"

He nodded shakily, so Victoria reached over to Natasha and lifted the beam slightly. The assassin wriggled free and looked at Victoria questioningly.

"Go." Victoria told her. "I'll be fine."

Natasha left and Victoria turned back to Bruce, placing a hand gently on his back. "Bruce, you have to fight it, this is just what Loki wants. You're going to be ok, listen to me. We're going to be ok. I swear on my life, I will get you out of this."

"Your life?!" Bruce yelled. Victoria leaned back slightly.

"Bruce?"

He looked at her, his skin tinged green, and Victoria's eyes widened as she saw the fear in his eyes. He roared and threw himself away from her and at the wall, his muscles swelling and his clothes ripping.

"Bruce?"

He turned to look at her, his eyes now a vivid green and full of hate. He gave a breathy roar and Victoria slowly got to her feet. His face contorted with rage as he saw her stand up.

"Oh, shit." she whispered. She turned to run and heard him roar behind her. "Shit, shit, shit!"

"Tony!"

"**Torie, busy right now!**"

"I don't care! I am being chased by the Hulk!" she shrieked to him.

Victoria made the big mistake of slowing down slightly. She grunted as the Hulk swept her aside with a huge green fist. As she slid down the wall, she looked up at the Hulk.

"Bruce?" she whispered. "Bruce, please?"

The Hulk faltered slightly and Victoria looked up fully. He stood in front of her, chest heaving. "Hulk not hurt Torie." he grunted.

Victoria sighed in relief, then gasped as Hulk was tackled by Thor.

The two of them fought and Victoria watched from the sidelines anxiously.

"We are not your enemies, Banner! Try to think!" Thor yelled.

They fought again, this time Thor had Mjolnir. Victoria rolled her eyes and ran in between the two, just as Hulk started to run.

"Stop it!" she yelled. "Thor, he wasn't going to hurt me, he said it himself. Hulk, be nice."

Hulk grunted. "Hulk not nice."

"For me?" Victoria pleaded.

Hulk sat down, and Thor dropped Mjolnir on the floor. Victoria sighed in relief. "Thank you. Now, you two play nice while I go kick my brother's ass for going out to that engine alone."

Thor chuckled and Hulk smiled, even though he didn't know why. Victoria kissed both of them on the cheek and walked away. "Men." she sighed. "Testosterone-filled idiots, the lot of them."

…...

(Tony's P.O.V.)

"Stark! Stark, I'm here!"

Tony flew in front of the Captain. "Good. Let's see what we got." he looked at the engine and frowned. "We've got to get the super-conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris." He turned to the Captain. "I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position."

The Captain jumped to the panel and Tony looked around, before pulling part of the debris away. "What's it look like in there?"

"It seems to run on some form of electricity." called Rogers.

Tony rolled his eyes. Torie would be so much more use here. "Well, you're not wrong." he muttered.

Blowing a path through the wall of the engine, he took a quick look. He was going to have to clear away a lot of rubbish. He started to laser away the bits that weren't needed.

"Ok, the relay's are intact!" Rogers called. "What's our next move?"

"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push."

"If that thing gets up to speed you'll get shredded!"

"That stable control unit can reverse the polarity long enough to disengage mag lev-"

"Speak English!" Rogers yelled.

"See that red lever?" Tony heard Torie's voice and smiled in relief. Everything would be much easier now. "It'll slow the rotors down long enough for him to get out." she continued.

"Stand by it and wait for my signal." Tony told him. "Torie, help me out over here."

He heard her jump up to him and felt her touch his arm. "What do you want me to do?" she asked him.

"Make sure that's the only thing that falls." he pointed to the piece of metal he had separated from the others. "Then get out and make sure Cap pulls the lever."

He jumped and the metal fell through the air. Tony watched as Torie held her thumbs up and jumped back down, then flew into the engine and pushed against the rotors. He got faster and faster, but it still wasn't fast enough.

"Stark, we're losing altitude." Fury told him over the comm. link.

"Yep, noticed." he said shortly. He pushed faster and faster and started to float away from the rotor he was pushing. "Cap, hit the lever."

"I need a minute here!" the soldier yelled.

"Lever! Now! Uh oh." Tony hit the rotor opposite him and then fell underneath. He was bashed around for a while before he felt the rotors slow down and he managed to get out.

"Where's Torie?" he asked the Captain, who was standing over an unconscious soldier.

"She said something about Loki getting out."

Tony growled. His sister was in love with Loki, and Tony really didn't like where that was taking her. He didn't care for many people, but he did care for Torie, and if Loki hurt her, Tony was going to kill him, immortal or not.

…...

(Victoria's P.O.V.)

Victoria got to the holding cell just as the double of Loki disappeared and Thor fell into the glass room.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?"

Thor smashed Mjolnir on the glass and Victoria groaned quietly. Big mistake.

"The humans think us immortal." Loki said. "Shall we test that?"

"Move away please." came the quiet voice. Victoria saw Phil step forwards holding a gun that Victoria recognised all too well, given that she had worked on it. "You like this?" Phil asked Loki. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Only three people know what it does, and I'm not one of them. But I'd like to find out."

"NO!" Thor and Victoria yelled as Loki stabbed Phil from behind. Loki walked over to the control panel and pressed the button. Victoria ran to Phil's side as Thor dropped.

"You're gonna lose." She told Loki furiously.

"Am I?" he asked her. She could tell he was uncomfortable with her being there.

"It's in your nature." Phil said weakly.

Loki chuckled incredulously. "Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction. And we have Victoria."

Loki faltered slightly. "I don't think I -"

Phil pulled the trigger. "So that's what it does." he coughed. "Victoria, go say goodbye, I know you want to. I'll be fine."

Victoria nodded and ran to where Loki had landed. She got there just as he was getting up.

"Come to try and kill me, Victoria?"

Victoria grabbed the collar of his coat and pressed her lips to his. He dropped his sceptre and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her from the floor. Victoria pulled off his helmet and tangled her fingers in his hair as she felt Loki doing the same to her.

She broke from him when she needed to breathe. "I love you, Loki, but I'll be damned if I let you get away with this."

He gave a breathy chuckle and leaned his forehead against hers. "You won't be able to resist, you know that Victoria."

Glaring, Victoria shoved him away from her. "Leave, Loki. Now."

"Or what?"

"Or I'll use you as a test subject to find out what happens when you resonate a high frequency wave in someone's head for half an hour."

Loki blanched. "I thought loved me?"

"So did I. But you're not the Loki I fell in love with. I was right to mourn, because the Loki I fell in love with died when he fell into the abyss."

Loki's face hardened. He picked up his helmet and sceptre. "I pray we don't meet again. Goodbye, child of Stark."

Victoria stood for a moment after Loki left, then ran to Phil. "Phil, stay with me. Fury's coming. Just stay with me. Please."

_**A.N. - You're going to be screwed when this finishes, aren't you Jemma? Lovely name by the way! Try not to fall off your seat!**_


	9. Chapter 9

Victoria held Phil's hand tightly as Fury hurried in.

"Sorry boss, the guy rabitted." Phil breathed.

"Just stay awake." Fury said. "Eyes on me!"

Victoria tightened her grip. "Come on, Phil."

"I'm clocking out here."

"Not an option!" Victoria and Fury growled.

"It's ok. This was never gonna work if they didn't have something to…"

Victoria let out a sob as Phil's eyes closed. She barely felt Fury's hand on hers, prising her fingers from around Phil's.

"Agent Coulson is down." he said through the comm. link.

A medical team ran in and surrounded Phil.

"A medical team is on it's way to your location." Victoria heard over the comm. Link.

"They're here." Fury said.

A guy from the med team shook his head and stood up.

"They called it."

…...

Victoria sat next to Tony, his hand linked with hers. Rogers was sat a few seats away.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." Fury threw some cards across the table. Victoria shuddered as she saw bloodstains. "Guess he never did get you to sign them."

Rogers looked down at them.

"We're dead in the air. Lost our communications, location of the cube, Banner."

Victoria looked up. "What?"

"As soon as you left Banner and Thor alone, Banner went psycho and jumped from the helicarrier." Fury told her. He then turned to Rogers. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, 'cos I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, both the Starks know this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people and see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."

Victoria couldn't listen anymore. She stood up and felt Tony do the same.

"Well, it's an old-fashioned notion." Fury said as they walked away.

They walked to the detention room and looked at the spot where Phil had lay. Tony wrapped his arms around Victoria. She put her head on his chest next to his arc reactor and breathed in the familiar scent of whiskey and engine oil. She opened her mind and felt Tony's mind meld with hers. They stood in silence for a while, sharing their grief, just like they had when their mother died. Tony's grief was a low, broken keeping that throbbed through Victoria's head, while her own grief was a numb feeling. Their grief worked together, Tony's giving Victoria an outlet and Victoria's quieting Tony's.

After a while the noise in Victoria's head stopped and she lifted her head from Tony's slightly. "He told me to say goodbye. To Loki." she sniffed.

"I don't like Loki. I don't like what he's doing to you."

"We're finished. If we see each other again it'll be to kill."

He tightened his grip. "You're ok with that?"

Victoria shook her head.

Tony sighed. "Torie, you have to let it go. You can't hide from your problems forever."

"Like you? When are you going to tell Fury the reason why the suit only works properly for you, that you're a technopath?"

"I'm not. He doesn't need to know, and it won't help."

Victoria looked up at Tony. There was pain in his eyes and she sighed and tightened her arms around him. "We can do this, Tony. We can beat him."

"Was he married?"

Victoria and Tony turned to see Rogers walk in.

"No." Victoria said shortly.

"There was a cellist, I think. In Portland." Tony added.

"I'm sorry." Rogers frowned. "He seemed like a good man."

"He was an idiot." Victoria said quietly.

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone." Tony said.

"He was doing his job." Rogers argued.

Victoria ran a finger over the railing. "He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have -"

Tony hugged her as she broke off.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out."

"Right." Tony scoffed. "We've heard that before."

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Rogers asked.

Victoria whirled around. "We are not soldiers! We're not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we gotta put that behind us and get this done. Now, Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list -"

"He made it personal." Victoria murmured.

"That's not the point." sighed Rogers.

"No, Captain, that is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live, why?"

"To tear us apart."

"He had to find a conquering spot." Tony thought out loud. "Great, but he know he has to take us out to win, especially Victoria, and I'm not sure he can do that. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it."

"He wants an audience." sighed Victoria. Loki had always been a show off, but it had always been just for fun, never life-threatening.

Rogers walked forwards. "Like he had in Stuttgart?"

Tony waved a hand in the air. "That's just previews, this is opening night and Loki is a full-time diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…"

Victoria realised what Loki wanted, and what Tony had now figured out. "Tony!"

"Son of a bitch!" Tony yelled, then ran off.

"Where the hell is he going?"

Victoria rolled her eyes. "Better pack your suitcase, Capsicle. We're off to New York."

…...

Victoria walked in just as Tony was suiting up. "I don't think you're going anywhere."

He looked up. "Actually, I think I am."

"Not without me."

"I -"

"Tony, just don't. I'm coming."

He sighed and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Hold on tight." he told her.

…...

Victoria gasped as she saw what was on top of Stark Tower. "Erik!"

"Sir, I've shut off the arc reactor, the device is already self-sustaining." JARVIS told them.

"Put me on the roof." Victoria told Tony, who did as she said, then flew back up. "Erik, shut it down!"

"It's too late!" he cried. "It can't stop now, she wants to show us something! A new universe!"

Tony raised his arm and Victoria ducked. Good thing too, as the blast backfired and hit Tony.

"The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable."

"Yeah, got that." Tony snapped at Jarvis. "Plan b."

"Sir, the mark 7 is not ready for deployment."

"Then skip the spinning rims, we're on the clock."

Tony grabbed her and flew down the platform. He put her down, before flying back to take off the suit.

Victoria stiffened as she saw Loki walking inside. "Really?" she muttered. "This is how he wants to play things?"

She walked inside and promptly ignored him.

"Please tell me the two of you are planning to appeal to my humanity."

"Er, actually we're planning to threaten you." Tony said abruptly.

"You should have left your armour on for that."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "It's seen a bit of mileage and you've got the, ah, glow-stick of destiny."

Tony smiled tightly. "Would you like a drink?" he asked Loki.

"Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no, no. Threatening you." Victoria gave a sweet smile that she knew Loki would see through in an instant. "No drink, you sure? I'm having one."

Tony handed her a bright green drink. "1 part Hpnotiq, 1 part Hennessy. Thought it was appropriate."

Smiling at the irony, Victoria sipped it.

"The Chutari are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

"Loki seems to be trying to persuade himself, rather than us."

Tony smiled. "The Avengers." he told Loki. "It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. Earth's mightiest heroes."

"Yes, I've met them." Loki chuckled.

"Takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a headcount here. Torie, if you wouldn't mind."

Victoria settled herself onto the couch. "Your brother, the demigod. A super-soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with _breathtaking_ anger-management issues. Iron Man, technical _genius_ with a full-on war suit. Your very pissed off _ex_-girlfriend who's just itching for a chance to kick you in the balls. A couple of master assassins and you, big man, you've managed to piss off every single one of us."

"That was the plan." he smiled tightly. Victoria could tell the 'ex-girlfriend' comment had thrown him. Well, what did he expect? That she'd sit there and take all his crap? No chance.

"Not a great plan." Tony walked forwards. "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army."

Victoria stood up. "We have a Hulk."

"I thought the beast had wandered off?"

"You're missing the point." Tony argued. "There's no throne. There's no version of this where you come out on top."

Catching Loki's eyes for a second, Victoria tried not to smirk. There was, but Tony didn't need to know about that.

"Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."

Loki sneered. "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"

Victoria sipped her drink as Loki pressed the tip of his sceptre to Tony's chest and was met with a metallic tap.

"This usually works." he frowned.

"Turn it off and then turn it back on again." Victoria snickered, then gasped as Loki's hand closed around Tony's throat. "JARVIS, any time now!" she called anxiously.

"You will all fall before me!" Loki hissed.

Victoria screamed as Loki threw Tony through the window. She ran forward and slapped the god. "You asshole!"

A bright red blur shot past her and she smiled. Maybe Tony _wasn't_ going to fall to his death. She looked out of the hole in the window.

Iron Man flew up from the street, shiny and new. Victoria grinned then turned to Loki. "And there's one other person you pissed off."

Tony appeared. "His name's Phil." He fired at Loki, just as the portal opened. "Right, army. Torie, your stuff's downstairs."

Nodding, Victoria ran towards the stairs, stopping to kick Loki on her way past. "That's for trying to kill my brother. No-one gets to do that but me."

_**A.N. - If anyone gets the drink reference, let me know and I'll write an Avengers one-shot for the first person to get it! Hope you like!**_


End file.
